Weekend Report: 'Woman' Gets Women, Ousts 'Captain America'

by Ray Subers

The Other Woman

April 27, 2014

Women like movies, too.

That very obvious statement was reinforced for the umpteenth time by The Other Woman, which earned $24.8 million from a predominantly female audience this weekend. The movie took first place at the box office, easily defeating three-time winner Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The other two new releases didn't fare so well: Brick Mansions opened below $10 million, while The Quiet Ones had one of the worst horror debuts in recent memory.

For the weekend, the Top 12 earned $103 million, which is up 25 percent from the same weekend last year. Next weekend, the Summer movie season kicks off with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which has already earned over $132 million overseas.

Playing at 3,205 locations, The Other Woman exceeded most expectations with a strong $24.8 million debut. That's a bit lower than Bridesmaids ($26.2 million), but is an improvement over star Cameron Diaz's What Happens in Vegas ($20.2 million). It's also more than twice as much as The Five-Year Engagement ($10.6 million) and The Big Wedding ($7.6 million), two female-skewing comedies that also opened on the final weekend of April.

The movie's success isn't rocket science: women make up 50 percent of moviegoers, and are willing to pay money to see stories and characters they can relate to. Fox tapped in to this with a strong marketing effort that effectively sold the revenge story—three women team up to take down their cheating lover—while also emphasizing the fun camaraderie between the three leads. In the final run up to release, there was messaging around "girls' night out," which likely helped increase the overall haul.

As expected, The Other Woman's audience was overwhelmingly female (75 percent). It also skewed older (65 percent over 25 years of age). With a "B+" CinemaScore, poor reviews and tough competition from Neighbors in two weeks, it's unclear exactly how well this will hold. Still, it should end up between $60 and $70 million, which will make this a solid win.

After leading for the past three weekends, Captain America: The Winter Soldier dropped to second place with $16.2 million (down just 37 percent). The superhero sequel has earned an impressive $225.1 million so far, and remains on pace to ultimately top $250 million. It faces its biggest challenge yet when it goes head-to-head with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 next weekend.

In its second weekend, Heaven is for Real eased 36 percent to $14.4 million. The faith-based true story has already earned $52.5 million, and will pass Son of God ($59.6 million) next weekend.

In fourth place, Rio 2 dipped 37 percent to $13.9 million. The animated sequel has grossed $96.4 million total, and should reach $100 million by Friday.

Playing at 2,647 theaters, Brick Mansions opened in fifth place with $9.5 million. That's lower than The Family ($14 million) and 3 Days to Kill ($12.2 million), which were also produced by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp and released stateside by Relativity Media.

A remake of 2006 French movie District B13, Brick Mansions is mostly noteworthy for being the final movie that Paul Walker completed before his untimely death last November (he was only around halfway through Fast & Furious 7). It's unclear if Walker's presence increased ticket sales for Brick Mansions; it certainly could have done worse this weekend, though.

The movie's audience was 58 percent male and 54 percent over the age of 25. It received a "B+" CinemaScore. With the highly competitive Summer season around the corner, it's unlikely that Brick Mansions earns more than $25 million or so by the end of its run.

On poor word-of-mouth and horrible reviews, Transcendence plummeted 61 percent to $4.2 million. The Johnny Depp sci-fi flick has banked $18.6 million total, and looks likely to wind up with around $25 million.The Quiet Ones bombed with just $3.9 million. That essentially ties Vampire Academy ($3.9 million) for lowest 2014 opening in over 2,000 theaters. It's also the worst debut ever for a supernatural horror movie playing at more than 2,000 locations.

The first four months of 2014 haven't been kind to the supernatural horror genre. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was the lowest-grossing entry in that franchise by a large margin, while Devil's Due closed with less than $16 million. Oculus has done decent business, though it could still fall short of $30 million. The Quiet Ones is the worst of the bunch by far, and seems to reinforce the notion that this genre isn't as safe a bet as it used to be. Around-the-World Roundup

A week ahead of its U.S. debut, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 expanded in to a handful of major markets and added $67.2 million. Its biggest new territories were South Korea ($13.4 million), Russia ($8.9 million), Italy ($6.5 million) and Japan ($5.2 million). Compared to its predecessor, the movie was about even in Korea and Russia, up 20 percent in Italy, and down in Japan.

Through two weekends, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has earned $132 million overseas. While it's hard to pinpoint exact numbers here, there's a sense that the superhero sequel isn't really doing better overall business than the first Amazing Spider-Man. That movie topped out at $490 million, which looks like a likely outcome for the sequel as well. Next weekend, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 expands in to its final markets, which include China, Brazil, France and India.Rio 2 added $27.3 million overseas, which brings its total to $247.8 million. The movie still has Australia and South Korea on the way, and should ultimately top its predecessor's $341 million total.Captain America: The Winter Soldier earned $16 million this weekend, which brings its foreign total to an impressive $420.3 million. Its biggest market is China with $107.6 million, or more than the next four markets combined. The movie has now grossed $645.2 million worldwide, which puts it ahead of Iron Man 2 ($624 million) and Thor: The Dark World ($644.8 million).The Other Woman added $12.6 million overseas. That includes a strong $4.5 million debut in the U.K., and a great second weekend in Australia ($4.14 million, ahead of The Amazing Spider-Man 2).